ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

Posted: **Thu Mar 14, 2013 7:51 pm**

Hey all, I was considering learning LUA for Starbound, and since this uses LUA as well I figure it would be a good time to start learning. I want to develop Addons to add to the diversity of ToME and try to improve it in areas where it is lacking. (Such as making balanced items to make weak builds perform better, or perhaps making my own race/area/etc).

So after some thinking I decided that I wanted to create a Rune version of the Fungus Tree. It makes perfect sense, as there is currently no reward for helping them from the Mage point of view, but there is from the Anti-Mage point of view.

So as I began coming up with ideas, combining them, trimming it down, I arrived at what I feel is a very well thought out generic tree for Runes, but calling it Spell/Rune seemed kind of.. gimmicky and just bad form.

So instead, I decided to develop an entire spell tree called Rune. This of course means that I will need to introduce a new class. I was curious if I could get feedback on these ideas before I go into production with them. I am still putting together enough trees for the class I have in mind (It will be using a new mechanic as well as Mana), but if I could get feedback on the Rune Generic I put together, I would appreciate it.

Please note that you may see terms such as "consumed" and "elemental runes". These are for the class I have in the makings, so don't worry about those just yet. I will get into those when I finalize the class concept.

EDIT: Alright, I finished the general template for the class. Feel free to leave feedback, if enough people seem interested in this then I will set out to make it.

CLASS DESCRIPTION:

Scribe

While the Order of Scribes studies the same magics as the Archmages, Scribes believe true power can only be achieved by harnessing and empowering magic through written symbols. During their quest, they discovered a method of which to channel elements through certain symbols. These glyphs, as they were named, were discovered to react to the Scribes innate control over mana. Combined with their urge to become one with the elements themselves, the Scribes etched these glyphs onto their own bodies, granting their spells the ability to empower them with the elements themselves. Touted as madmen by citizens and described as Abominations by the anti-magi, what's left of the Order of Scribes seeks to gain mastery over this method of utilizing magic, and they are willing to bring down everything in their way.

The Scribe functions by empowering, altering, and discharging 6 glyphs on their body. (I am considering balancing the class for additional glyphs through questing, another 1 or 2 maybe)

Mana is a major assest to Scribes as they posses a large number of sustains, and they frontload their mana. Empowering glyphs costs a LARGE amount of mana. Altering glyphs costs less, but still a decent amount. Discharging glyphs however, costs no mana at all as the power for these spells is already present in the runes.

NEW GENERIC:

Glyph / Rune

Increases the potency of runes inscribed on the body by applying concepts of glyph use to them, primarily by augmenting runes with defensive means.

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Arcane Reconstruction (Sustain Mana)
All damage dealt from runes will create a damage shield around you for 3 turns. The damage absorbed is equal to X% of the damage dealt from inscribed runes, and Y% of the damage dealt from glyphs.

Unstable Shield (Sustain Mana)
Damage Shields, upon expiring, will damage enemies in a radius of X for Y% of the damage absorbed as Arcane.

Shielded Resilience (Passive)
Damage Shields now grant an additional (3/6/9/12/15)% resistance to all damage while active.

Arcane Overload (Cooldown: 20 Sec, Cost: TBD  Instant)
Increases the current damage shield by X% and shatters it, triggering the effects of Unstable Shield.

CLASS TREES

Glyph / Empowering

Deals with the empowering of Glyphs.

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Empower Glyph (Cost: 0, Cooldown: 40/35/30/25/20 sec)

Empowers (2/3/4/5/6) dormant glyphs on your body with a random element.


Recharge (Cost: 0, Cooldown: 20 sec)

Discharges all active glyphs and heals you for X per rune. Over the next 6 turns, you will empower a glyph every turn with a random element.


Invoke Glyph (Cost: TBD, Cooldown: 5 sec)

Channels the energy of your staff, blasting the target for X damage of it's element and absorbing that damage to empower a glyph on your flesh of the same element. If the element is not compatible with a rune, no rune will be generated. If you possess the max amount of runes, it will replace a random rune of an element that is not the same as your staff.


Inscribed Power (Passive)

Runes inscribed on your body now have a (20/40/60/80/100)% chance to impart a dormant glyph with a random element. In addition, there is a X% chance that the rune will be of the same element as your staff.

Glyph / Alteration

Allows the Runemaster access to spells that alter the elemental properties of empowered glyphs.

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Projection (Cost: TBD, Cooldown: 3 Sec)

An empowered glyph is chosen at random and a projectile is fired. When it reaches it's target, it will deal X damage to it of the selected glyphs element. Afterwards, the glyphs element will be altered to a random element. (This does not discharge the glyph)

Runic Beam (Cost: TBD, Cooldown: 5 Sec)

Up to 2 empowered glyphs are chosen at random and a beam is fired. All targets struck by the beam are dealt X damage per glyph, and the damage type is based on the glyphs selected. Afterwards, the glyphs element will be altered to a random element. (This does not discharge the glyph)


Inscribed Wave (Cost: TBD, Cooldown: 7 Sec)

Up to 4 empowered glyphs are chosen at random and channeled into a wave of elemental energy. All targets struck by the wave are dealt X damage per glyph, and the damage type is based on the glyphs selected. The explosion affects a radius of Y. Afterwards, the glyphs element will be altered to a random element. (This does not discharge the glyph)


Expulsion (Cost: TBD, Cooldown: 15 Sec)

Up to 6 empowered glyphs are chosen at random and channeled into an explosion that flies outward. All targets struck by the blast are dealt X damage per glyph, and the damage type is based on the glyphs selected. The explosion affects a radius of Y. Afterwards, the glyphs element will be altered to a random element. (This does not discharge the glyph)

Glyph / Enhancement

Contains knowledge of augmenting the caster's potency through the act of empowering, discharging, and altering glyphs.

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Elemental Augmentation (Cost: TBD, CD: 20 Sec)

Calls upon the power of the runes inscribed on your body, granting you (1/1/2/2/3) stacks of their Runic Consumption effects for X turns.

Fire: +3% Damage Per Stack
Ice: +(Level / 5) Life/ +(Level / 10) Mana Regen Per Stack
Lightning: Generate (StackNum) Lightning Strikes to random targets in LOS each turn.
Arcane: +2% Crit Chance and Multiplier Per Stack
Earth: -1% Damage Taken Per Stack
Temporal: +4% Global Speed per Stack


Elemental Discharge (Sustain, Mana)

Every glyph discharged will grant you (1/2/3/4/5) stacks of it's elemental effects for X turns.

Fire: +3% Damage Per Stack
Ice: +(Level / 5) Life/ +(Level / 10) Mana Regen Per Stack
Lightning: Generate (StackNum) Lightning Strikes to random targets in LOS each turn.
Arcane: +2% Crit Chance and Multiplier Per Stack
Earth: -1% Damage Taken Per Stack
Temporal: +4% Global Speed per Stack


Empowering Alteration (Sustain, Mana)

Every glyph that is altered will grant (1/1/2/2/3) of it's elemental effects to you for X turns. The effect granted is based on the element the glyph altered to, not from.

Fire: +3% Damage Per Stack
Ice: +(Level / 5) Life/ +(Level / 10) Mana Regen Per Stack
Lightning: Generate (StackNum) Lightning Strikes to random targets in LOS each turn.
Arcane: +2% Crit Chance and Multiplier Per Stack
Earth: -1% Damage Taken Per Stack
Temporal: +4% Global Speed per Stack


Efficiency (Passive)

For every 25 stacks of an elemental effect you cause, you empower a discharged glyph with a random element. If there is no glyph to empower, this effect will continue to rollover until one is available, up to (25/50/75/100/150). (This value will be displayed on your active effects)

Glyph / Discharge

Allows the Scribe to discharge glyphs, rather than alter them, to create immensely devastating effects.

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Discharging Blast (Cost: 0, CD: 15)

Discharges 1 glyph for every target in LOS, up to 6. Deals X damage per glyph discharged to all targets within LOS.


Elemental Fury (Cost: 0, CD: 20)

Consumes all glyphs and strikes the target with a devastating amount of runic force, dealing X damage per rune consumed. Has an additional 25% crit chance if the blast is only a single element. This spell will break through any damage shield the target has instantly.


Scribed Acceleration  (Cost: 0, CD: TBD)

Removes the cooldown from a random glyph talent of level X. For each talent reset, 1 glyph is consumed. For each consecutive glyph of the same element, you will have a (20*Level of PoO) chance to have another talent reset of level X.


Power Of One (Passive)

Increases damage of consecutive glyph element attacks by X% each when discharged for spells. This effect is additive. (3 Fire Glyphs w/ 10% bonus = No bonus on first, 10% bonus on second, 20% bonus on third) If the spell does not deal damage, the spell will explain how Power of One affects it.

Ex. You have 6 Lightning Glyphs and PoO is granting 10% bonus. The spell deals 50 Damage per rune consumed. Total damage will be 50 + 55 + 60 + 65 + 70 + 75. Deals 375 instead of 300.

Glyph / Control (Requires Cat Point)

Allows the Scribe to better control the runes generated.

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Elemental Channel (Cost: TBD, CD: 20/16/12/8/4, Instant)

Allows you to change your staffs element without consuming a turn. Generates (0/1/1/2/2) glyphs of the same element as you chose.


Devil's Luck (Cost: TBD, Sustain)

Glyphs created that do not match your staves element will automatically discharge and re-empower until it does match. Each alteration or empowering spell cast will make (1/2/3/4/5) attempts total to match your staves element. Empowering Alteration has a X% chance to trigger on each attempt, if learnt.

Decisiveness (Cost: TBD, CD: 20 Sec)

Glyphs that match your staves element will be immune to rune alteration for X turns. They can still be selected however, they just won't change.

Controlled Chaos (Cost: TBD, CD: 60 Sec. Instant)

Any glyph altering or empowering abilities you use in the next (1/1/2/2/3) turns will force glyphs to attune to the same element as your staff. Has (3/6/10/13/18) charges. Generating or Altering a glyph will remove 1 charge. If the staff's element is not a valid glyph element, then one will be randomly chosen for you.

Glyph / Elements (Requires Cat Point)

Allows the Scribe to bring out the true elemental potency of their glyphs to control the battlefield.

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Elemental Amplification (Cost: 0 CD: 10 Sec)

Discharges a glyph that matches your staffs element and generates a different effect depending on the element.

Fire: Knocks back all enemies around you X spaces and stuns them for Y turns.
Ice: Generates an Ice Storm around you of skill level X. Duration is based on the Ice Storm.
Lightning: Calls down blasts of lightning on X to Y targets in LoS, dealing Z damage each and stunning them for 3 turns.
Earth: Encases you in a protective shield, absorbing X damage.
Arcane: Sends you into a casting frenzy, increasing damage dealt by X% and crit multiplier by Y%.
Temporal: Teleports you to a random location within a radius of X.


Glyph of Protection (Cost: TBD CD: 10 Sec)

Erects a barrier around the Scribe for X turns. During this time, each rune discharged will also grants 5 turns of 10% resistance to each element that is discharged.


Piercing Glyphs (Sustain Cost: TBD)

Increases the elemental piercing of the Scribe by x% per empowered glyph on their body. The element that piercing is granted to is based on the elemental orientation of the glyphs. If spells discharge runes, this bonus will linger for that spell.


Elemental Proliferation (Passive)

Elemental damage you deal from glyph spells now have a X% chance to cause an additional effect. 

Fire: Burns the target for X% of fire damage dealt over 3 turns.
Ice: Slows the targets down due to the extreme frost for 3 turns. Slows by X%.
Lightning: Dazes the target with a volt of lightning for X turns.
Arcane: Grants 1 stack of X random Runic Consumption effects for Y turns..
Earth: Stuns the targets for X turns.
Temporal: Teleports the target to a random location within X radius.

Glyph / Expelling (Requires Cat Point)

A tree that specializes even further into the discharging of glyphs.

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Recycle Energy (Sustain, Cost: TBD)

Grants you X mana for every rune consumed.


Discharging Calamity (Cost: 0, CD: 15)

Consumes all glyphs and launches a projectile at the target. Deals X damage per glyph consumed. If the attack connects, it generates a random glyph and selects another target at random. It continues in this fashion until there are no targets left or the projectile misses. (This attack can bounce back and forth between 2 targets) If Devil's Luck is active, each separate hit will gain it's effects.


Elemental Gambit (Cost: 0, CD: 20)

Drains you for X% of your life and empowers all glyphs with random elements. For the next Y turns, discharging glyphs will heal you for Z% of the drained amount. Only discharged glyphs will empower.


Instability (Sustain, Cost: 0, CD: 10)

Selects a random glyph after every spell or attack, and causes an explosion of that element in a radius of X around the caster dealing Y damage. After which, the glyph will be discharged.

Posted: **Thu Mar 14, 2013 9:03 pm**

Sounds pretty cool. A few questions:

Arcane Reconstruction: Does getting damaged by runes create the damage shield, or does doing damage with runes create the damage shield?

Unstable Shield: By "upon expiring", do you only mean that their duration runs out, or do you mean that the damage shield takes enough damage to fall? Does the explosion do as much damage as the damage shield has absorbed up to this point (multiplied by a scalar)?

Damage Shields: A lot of these abilities create damage shields. How do they interact with existing damage shields? Replace? Add? Replace if and only if better? Might be complicated, because damage shields have multiple traits (duration and absorption), so you can't do a simple comparison, or a simple addition.

Okay, now comments:

Temporal Shield: Hard to balance-- I think you want to minimize the risk associated with using random teleports as an escape. It's hard to minimize that risk without removing that risk. Another way to handle this is to give the player some teleport aim. Also, this is something that is more important to higher level characters, so you may want to move it up the tree a notch.

Runic Overload: This is very powerful. On any cooldown, it's a get-out-of-jail-free card. You use it, you escape, then you rest, making the cooldown (and the runic saturation effect) unimportant. Five detriments should be all of your detriments. It's not necessarily too powerful, it's just that it depends on what the other trees look like. If there are non-runic escapes available, or large movement bonuses, then it's pretty crazy good. If there aren't, the drawbacks might be too large. I like how it encourages some of the classic antimagic equipment on an arcane: torque of psychoport or movement infusion might be important in order to use Runic Overload as a free escape.

Unstable Shield: Seems fine. You have three defensive abilities followed by an offensive ability. Depending on what the rest of the class looks like, you might want to move the offensive ability down the tree a bit to give access to lower level characters.

Posted: **Fri Mar 15, 2013 8:37 am**

Spell / Metarunic

Posted: **Fri Mar 15, 2013 1:22 pm**

nate wrote:Sounds pretty cool. A few questions:

Arcane Reconstruction: Does getting damaged by runes create the damage shield, or does doing damage with runes create the damage shield?

Unstable Shield: By "upon expiring", do you only mean that their duration runs out, or do you mean that the damage shield takes enough damage to fall? Does the explosion do as much damage as the damage shield has absorbed up to this point (multiplied by a scalar)?

Damage Shields: A lot of these abilities create damage shields. How do they interact with existing damage shields? Replace? Add? Replace if and only if better? Might be complicated, because damage shields have multiple traits (duration and absorption), so you can't do a simple comparison, or a simple addition.

Okay, now comments:

Temporal Shield: Hard to balance-- I think you want to minimize the risk associated with using random teleports as an escape. It's hard to minimize that risk without removing that risk. Another way to handle this is to give the player some teleport aim. Also, this is something that is more important to higher level characters, so you may want to move it up the tree a notch.

Runic Overload: This is very powerful. On any cooldown, it's a get-out-of-jail-free card. You use it, you escape, then you rest, making the cooldown (and the runic saturation effect) unimportant. Five detriments should be all of your detriments. It's not necessarily too powerful, it's just that it depends on what the other trees look like. If there are non-runic escapes available, or large movement bonuses, then it's pretty crazy good. If there aren't, the drawbacks might be too large. I like how it encourages some of the classic antimagic equipment on an arcane: torque of psychoport or movement infusion might be important in order to use Runic Overload as a free escape.

Unstable Shield: Seems fine. You have three defensive abilities followed by an offensive ability. Depending on what the rest of the class looks like, you might want to move the offensive ability down the tree a bit to give access to lower level characters.

Just to clarify, this is a generic tree that would be accessible by everyone by completing Tempest and returning to the Mage Town place.

Anyway, to answer you:

Arcane Reconstruction is for runes that you damage enemies with.

Unstable Shield would work for both expire and fully absorbed.

I need to delve into the code and see how he manages damage shields. I would prefer it to *add*, and if need be I could keep track of what damage shields got absorbed and when. The idea behind this tree is to grant microshields to augment a main shield, not to produce unlimited powerful shields.

Temporal seemed kind of forced, I know. I had a different skill for that spot that I personally thought worked better, especially since it synergized well with classes that would be using runes. I will edit my main post with it.

The Runemaster has no reliable escape abilities. He does has 1 other escape he can use, but it is not reliable unless you specalize into the control options. I have most of the class finalized so I will post that here in a bit as well. And yes, I wanted to offer something that forced people to think about their options. People who go for Runic Overload may not want all 5 runes. I'll leave it as it is for now until I get more feedback on it.

Posted: **Sun Mar 17, 2013 12:27 am**

Jsut pasing by quickly, I'll read it in details later but I wanted to say: add a reply to your post when you do a massive edit like that so people see something changed

Posted: **Sun Mar 17, 2013 3:25 am**

Using a new resource calls runes is likely to cause confusion.
Can't think of a different suggestion though :/

Posted: **Sun Mar 17, 2013 5:48 am**

I agree that "Runes" is probably a bad name for the resource; it's begging for confusion with the inscriptions.

From the description, it sounds like they are discrete chunks of magical energy affixed to the body that can be attuned to various different things. "Motes", "nodes", or "chakras" might be good names.

Posted: **Sun Mar 17, 2013 6:46 am**

However, neither "Motemaster" nor "Nodemaster" really flow off the tongue. "Chakramaster" might work, but if you're focusing on the concept of 'rune' as a sort of magical symbol, have you considered 'Glyph'? "Glyphmaster", or "GlyphMage" sound kinda decent, but I admit that neither of those really flow well either.

Posted: **Sun Mar 17, 2013 7:02 am**

Chodemaster.

Posted: **Tue Mar 19, 2013 3:48 pm**

This is the kind of thing that goes over my head and is why I put this up here for critique.

I'll read through different interpretations of lore and see if I can find a better name that would still fit for the name of the resource.

I also need to make some edits to make it fit into ToME's established lore.

Posted: **Tue Mar 19, 2013 4:13 pm**

Sigilmaster? or is that sygilmaster?

Posted: **Tue Mar 19, 2013 7:34 pm**

Just did a heavy concept update. Remade a few skills, removed a LOT of confusion from all the skills, fixed a lot of typos, etc.

ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

Runemaster and Rune Generics (Concept)

Runemaster and Rune Generics (Concept)

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